Copikaze: A Crucible to Manage Mission Impossible

By Thomas Rizzo

With constant evolution being experienced in the policing profession, the odds of successfully navigating a career from its onset to completion have become increasingly slim. Whether attributed to the complexities of modern directives, the frustrations of contradictin

• Language: English
• Publisher: Walk the Talk Consultants, LLC
• Release date: Jul 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9780578905006

Book preview

Introduction

The path of a career in law enforcement encompasses light, darkness, tranquility, terror, risk, and reward, all intertwined, with each component having odd codependency of one another. This path is unique and offers a front-row seat to the most incredible show on Earth; the wonders of life. The navigation of this path and its traveler would equally enjoy a tremendous benefit if a guide were to be composed, not just for prospect or retrospect, but for reference as a turn-by-turn directory.

This manual of sorts would afford its reader much greater chances of an enjoyable ride from the onset of the career journey, not only as a means of avoiding the potential hazards of the adventure as they present themselves. In the ideal form, this crucible of knowledge would be carved by an officer who has served honorably in the field, garnered with scars and citations alike, surrounded with the earned respect of peers, who can recite the hymns of glorious battle cries, sing the songs of the fraternal joys, and share in the shedding of tears for those lost but not forgotten.

The imagery of the infantile officer standing beside the grizzly veteran is worth more than a thousand words as to if the images portrayed could only speak to tell us how each viewed the world from the start of their trek to their near completion. In relevance to the profession, nature is more intelligent than people think, as are the effects it can cause. As one of mother nature’s many profound mysteries, some species’ baptism has been intriguingly captured on film, including some dangerous feats.

A crew of researchers, recently focused on filming a documentary, set out, and with cameras rolling, hoped to memorialize their hypotheses. The crew would amazingly observe barnacle goslings hobble their first awkward steps from the safety of their nests and, without hesitation, intentionally tumbled downward on a cliff face in their native Greenland, as they could not yet take flight. Despite each gosling watching a sibling’s failed attempt, some fatal, they noted one constant control; the next would follow, in a rhythmic cadence, regardless of the definitive plummet lying ahead.

As the chronicles of wartime history eerily hold painstaking memories, I find a peculiar correlation between the choice of becoming a law enforcement officer and that of the notorious Japanese Kamikaze pilots of the World War II era. In the most simplistic manner of describing this sadistic combat tactic, these suicidal soldiers would use their aircraft as pilot-guided missiles to strike enemy vessels, despite their dreadful outcome of the deliberate flight maneuver. Incapable of reconsideration, with full disclosure of what was expected of them, individuals willingly accepted the mission as part of what they saw to be a noble cause.

An unimaginable sense of madness must have been a prerequisite for such enlistment. Yet, interestingly, that same sense of madness has become a similar statement of cause and assignment in the debate arena of who would possibly want to become a police officer considering the advent of modern times.

Most would concur that the law enforcement profession comprises a much more sophisticated trajectory course with prescribed safeguards for its prospective officers than would be that of a gosling in Greenland or the determined Kamikaze pilots in WWII. Yet, as each year passes, despite self-proclaimed advancements, members of law enforcement only experience increases in intentional self-inflicted harms and a blind following of that’s the way we’ve always done it. I’ve yet to encounter someone tasked with the tremendous responsibility of recruiting, retaining, and developing police personnel who would intentionally pave this particular crash course; however, I have encountered consistent resistance when I earnestly provide suggestions to alter it. Despite factual basis and scientific evidence that some internal industry trends are counterintuitive to wellness, we press on clinging to the adage, if it ain’t broke, you can’t fix it.

The times of denial have come and gone. Agreement and consensus are readily available when I present the argument, especially to colleagues, that we, ourselves, have created some scenarios for our fellow officers, which are ripe with impending doom; however, when seeking participative collaboration as a resolution strategy, I haven’t found that same fortune of agreeableness. Allow this literature to serve as a how-to manual of sorts, not just how to avoid certain horrific consequences of poor choices, but so much more significantly, how I hope that you will learn to follow a pathway to enjoy a fruitful career balanced with a fulfilled and wholesome personal life.

For those readers who are not sworn or prospective law enforcement professionals (retired or formerly employed), whether you are intimately related, intrigued, or combative to the profession as a whole, allow this book to serve as some insight. This book explores the personal journey, the pitfalls, hurdles, the wins and losses, the smiles and cries. This book does not answer the cliches, the shallow-ended questions like Boston cream or a bear claw? Ticket quotas? Whether or not bonuses are proffered to an officer for arresting a particular person? By no means is this meant to solicit or garner agreement on all aspects of the profession by non-police persons, but to offer, at the very least, a glimpse of sporadic understanding, without expectation of a solidified support. Understanding in any fragment of the term would certainly benefit both sides. My genuine hope is that this will help heal, not hurt, advance, not arrogate, uplift, not upend, and enlighten, not endanger our collaborative chances at a better future for this profession and its stakeholders’ personal lives to thrive, not just survive.

Chapter 1

Mission Statement

My career started in New Jersey, while the dust had not even finished its solemn descent from the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001. I considered my comprehension of the law enforcement profession's mission to be without void, a patriotic semblance based on the cliché of protecting and serving.

Armed with the sixth sense to observe the unobservable and predict the unpredictable, as I blasted through the exit gate of my academy graduation, I felt a firm grasp that I possessed all of the necessary fabric to weave a security blanket of a successful career.

As a plumber is equipped to handle the routine and not-so routine plumbing emergencies, I would be that surety of law and order, internalizing my organization's mission statement into a living document of deliberate action.

A mission statement, loosely defined, is an organization's statement of existence or purpose.

Some notorious examples:

NYPD – The mission of the New York City Police Department is to enhance the quality of life in New York City by working in partnership with the community to enforce the law, preserve peace, protect the people, reduce fear, and maintain order.

LAPD – It is the mission of the Los Angeles Police Department to safeguard the lives and property of the people we serve, to reduce the incidence and fear of crime, and to enhance public safety while working with the diverse communities to improve their quality of life. Our mandate is to do so with honor and integrity while at all times conducting ourselves with the highest ethical standards to maintain public confidence.

SEATTLE PD – The mission of the Seattle Police Department is to prevent crime, enforce the law, and support quality public safety by delivering respectful, professional, and dependable police services.

With absolutely no intention of casting disrespect toward the fine men/women of these departments, I'd venture to guess those same men/women feel everything but in harmony with the sentiments held within their mission statements compared to the actions encouraged of them in the field.

Thankfully, since the evolution of current-day social networking vehicles, it has become entirely plausible to obtain background information about any department's inner workings before seeking employment with that same department. One does not have to rely upon the department's mission statement as a sole marketing tool to find out the truths of operational expectations once a formal assignment has already begun.

Misalignment of mission statements and the expected behavioral norms within an agency is a recipe for specific disastrous outcomes.

The creation of moral tennis matches in terms of what we say in contrast to what we do fosters interpersonal conflict. We cannot continue to act surprised as to when outrageous outcomes result from the propaganda culture we have helped to create. The profession has created a false sense of commitment in the obligatory formulation and advertisement of these statements of purpose.

As I am writing this book, each of the agencies used for illustrative purposes above have been infected by outside influences to allow a tolerance of disobedience, not just contradiction of the message, but utter hypocrisy as to what the mission states compares to what the mission actually is.

While the preferred current manner of mission statement composition may be to gather a group of words meant to numb any potential critic's senses, the reality of field operations can denigrate the reputation sought.

Although I intended to work for a large-scale law enforcement agency, comprised of an abundance of opportunities for my career to flourish, I found that life's timings and my appetite to set onward could not be suppressed.

This young and innocent eagerness would serve as the first of many lessons to come:

Not everything goes to plan and fits in a neatly packaged box.

The inability to accept this and forced feed oneself strict adherence to rigid expectations will consistently lead to easily avoidable disappointment. Learn to roll with the punches and realize that you gain something from not always getting what you want; experience.

After finding a way to expedite the completion of my undergraduate bachelor’s degree sooner than some (three years), not because of intelligence, but because of initiative (I will share that lesson later), I found myself in my first career conundrum. Do I sit in the state of a psychological waiting room for nearly a year for an announcement of the next hiring process for the department which satisfies my taste palate? Or, do I punch in no matter the origin of the patch I wear, as long as I am wearing a shield?

The answer was so readily apparent, and twenty years later, I can say, without reluctance, that I don’t regret a thing. Although not listed in my personally-prescribed blueprints, I found myself being sworn in by a municipal department based in a small jurisdiction, comprised of only thirty-five officers, who all seemed to have some tie of familial bond with the township. I vividly remember the deafening silence when asked, during my interview, what I knew of the town. I struggled, blurting out that I knew where to find the police department, and that was about it. Thankfully they had a sense of humor. To their credit, the Chief and administrative panel decided to take a risk and snap a tradition of legacy hiring ingrained with nepotistic trends by choosing me, an outsider, for which I’ll be forever grateful.

I’m convinced that the vast range of emotions individuals experience as they embark on the journey of a career in law enforcement cannot be truly comprehended by those who have not walked that path. I do not provide that statement with cause to be presumptuous or outright elite, but instead to call to common senses in that some things are not capable of being fully comprehended by those who have not intimately experienced them, and that is perfectly acceptable. Being transparent to an extent, open to conversation as to the how’s and why’s are preferred over a state of inertia; however, juvenile anticipation of having the civilian sector gain a full understanding of the profession after being exposed to a single training initiative or